Synod: Pope Francis calls for “silence” and “a pause”
If the Holy Spirit is not among us, the Synod will not bear good results,” warned Pope Francis at the first General Assembly of the Synod on the Future of the Church, this October 4, 2023. As the Synod opened, he issued a warning to journalists, lamenting that previous synods had been polluted by debates from public opinion. He expressed the hope that silence and listening would prevail during this month of work.
In the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, the 365 members of the Synod took part in their first General Congregation this afternoon. In an impromptu address, Pope Francis emphasized that the “Synod is not a parliament,” repeating a phrase already used on various occasions. Most recently, he had used the expression a few hours earlier at the Synod’s opening mass in St Peter’s Square.
Round tables have been set up in the Paul VI Hall to facilitate conversation and listening during the Synod.
Rejecting worldliness, gossip, and public pressure
Giving some advice to this assembly of bishops, religious, and lay men and women, he invited them to reject “voices that do not come from the Spirit”, “worldliness” and “gossip.”
“If you don’t agree with what that bishop, that sister, or that layman is saying, tell him to his face. Because this is a synod,” the Pope insisted.
In a message addressed directly to journalists and communicators, he denounced the way in which previous synods had, in his view, been the object of media pressure. As an example, he referred to the issue of divorced and remarried people, which became the focus of attention at the Synod on the Family in 2014-2015. He also mentioned the Special Synod Assembly on the Pan-Amazon Region, during which the theme of the ordination of married men had come to the fore. “We entered the Synod under that pressure,” he said sadly.
On the subject of the current Synod, he noted that “hypotheses” had again arisen from the outside, such as “the priesthood for women.”
